The secretive and self-policing nature of the Senate’s internal economy committee was front and centre at Senator Mike Duffy’s trial today. Senate staffer Nicole Proulx told Duffy’s defence lawyer that, beyond the written rules and guidelines that are being examined by the court, the internal economy committee also makes decisions “in camera” about what senators can and can’t claim in their expense reports. Our Leslie MacKinnon reports from Courtroom 33.

The Conservative government is killing an NDP MP’s private member’s bill that would recognize Remembrance Day as a ‘legal’ holiday because of “politics,” says NDP MP and veterans critic Peter Stoffer. “It’s sinful, it’s shameful that the Conservatives can never let their foot off the gas and allow a really good idea that comes from the NDP, in this case, to pass what has such great support across the country,” said Stoffer. “We’ll defeat them in the next election and we’ll make it happen,” he added. Our Janice Dickson has the story.

Nepal’s prime minister said today that the death toll from Saturday’s earthquake could reach 10,000, “as survivors’ despair turned to anger at the government’s slow response to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country, with food, water and other essentials in desperately short supply,” reports The Guardian. “Health workers said they feared a major health crisis was unfolding among survivors of the quake who are living in the open or in overcrowded tents with no access to sanitation or clean water.”